South Korea’s foreign reserves post record monthly gain in August

The nation’s foreign reserves reached US$442.28 billion at the end of August, up $14.33 billion from the previous month, according to data released by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The increase was the largest monthly gain since the BOK began compiling the data in 1971. The total also marked the country’s highest level of foreign reserves since May 2022, when reserves stood at $447.71 billion.

The BOK attributed the sharp rise to an increase in foreign-currency deposits held by financial institutions, along with higher dollar-denominated values of overseas assets and investment management gains.

Foreign securities, including U.S. Treasury bonds, rose by $7.07 billion from a month earlier to $387.07 billion at the end of August. They accounted for 87.5 percent of South Korea’s total foreign reserves.

Foreign-currency deposits increased by $7.17 billion to $30.3 billion, while the country’s holdings of special drawing rights (SDRs) rose by $60 million to $15.77 billion.

Gold bullion holdings remained unchanged at $4.79 billion.

Earlier, Qazinform reported a number of foreign workers under South Korea’s EPS hit a record high.